The festivity that marked the conclusion of the 15th edition of the Romanian “Young Journalist of the Year” competition was held on the 26th of November 2014, at Intercontinental Hotel, Bucharest, and was entertainingly hosted by Alexandru DUCU Hâncu, columnist with Kamikaze and former leading journalist of the BBC World Service - Romanian Section. The Gala debuted with the speeches of Cristina GUSETH - Director of Freedom House Romania, Horia GHIBUȚIU - Ringier Romania, and Petrișor Obae - previous winner of the competition in 2004 and founder of Pagina de Media, a reputed Romanian website covering media and advertising.

After the jurors for each of the four sections carefully examined the submissions, the following winners were announced:

Christian Spahr - director of the Sofia based KAS Media Program South-East Europe, Liviu Avram - deputy chief editor of Adevarul newspaper and representative of the jury and Victor Cozmei, young journalist with Hotnews.ro, the winner of the Justice and Rule of Law sectionFor the Justice and Rule of Law section, cordially supported by Media Program South-East Europe of Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung, the winner was Victor Cozmei (HotNews), who participated with the article “Romania, the Heaven of criminally-convicted lawyers. A few of the emblematical cases of convicted lawyers that still plead in the courts.”

Praising Victor Cozmei’s performance, Mr. Christian Spahr (KAS), Freedom House Romania's partner in supporting the new established Justice and Rule of Law section, also pointed out to the considerable “efforts for transparency and justice” made by the other three nominees of the section, thanking Biro Attila (Gândul.info), Ovidiu Vanghele (Romanian Center for Media Investigations) and Ms. Lilia Zaharia from the Independent Press Association from the Republic of Moldova.

The winner of the Environment and Ecology section, courteously sponsored by the traditional sustainer of the section, ECO-ROM Ambalaje, was Andreea Pavel (Info Sud-Est, Constanța), who submitted the article “Recklessness and hypocrisy! The Romanian state no longer supervises the sterile pools from Baia, where the copper extracted from Altân Tepe was processed.”

Andreea was also praised by Freedom House Romania for daring to conduct independent investigations and to exercise media freedom in Constanța, a county well-known for its state-capture.

Anca Simina, the winner of the current affairs sections sponsored by E.ON Romania

The Current Affairs section was benevolently sponsored for the first time by E.ON Romania, and was won by Anca Simina (Gândul.info), who entered the competition with the article “The Real Estate Heaven of RA-APPS. What the Prime Minister did not see: Gândul found 28 errors on Ponta’s list”, on how state mansions of former nomenklatura has been become a kind of social housing for expired officials no longer entitled to live within.

Roxana Pricop, journalist with Ziarul Financiar was the recipient of the great prize at the Economics section sponsored by UniCredit Tiriac BankThe Economy section, which was kindly sponsored by UniCredit Țiriac Bank (2014 marks its tenth sponsorship of the section), bears as winner the article of Roxana Pricop (Ziarul Financiar), entitled “The stake for the new restitution law: land worth 1.2 billion euro and half of Romania’s forests will be up for purchase with value-points.”

Freedom House Romania would also like to thank other sponsors of the event, that contributed in various ways, namely Humanitas, Antalis and Vinarte. In addition, we would like to thank our traditional media partners, Asociatia Romana pentru Masurarea Audientelor, Biroul Roman de Audit Transmedia, B1TV, Dilema Veche, Gandul.info, Gazeta de Sud, HotNews, Institute The Magazine, Mediafax, Pagina de Media, Radio Romania Regional, RFI, Ziare.com, Ziarul de Vrancea, Ziarul de Iasi, Ziua de Constanța, Ziarul Financiar.